In 2013, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s workplace confronted a call: whether or not to affix investigations from different state attorneys common into Trump University, the place college students paid as much as $35,000 for enterprise lessons that critics claimed have been fraudulent.
Despite receiving complaints of exploitation from college students, Bondi and then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris each declined to affix the investigation. Both had acquired political donations from Donald Trump and denied that the funds influenced their workplace’s resolution.
Since then, the 2 former state attorneys common have adopted polar reverse political paths. Harris attacked Trump within the 2020 and 2024 elections and painted him as a enterprise fraud and menace to democracy. Trump received re-election earlier this month.
Bondi spent the final decade defending Trump and attacking those that examine him. Now, if confirmed by the Senate, Bondi is about to grow to be President-elect Trump’s lawyer common.
A central query is whether or not Bondi will observe by way of on vows she made in tv interviews to analyze what she referred to as out-of-control federal prosecutors and FBI brokers.
“The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will probably be prosecuted, the dangerous ones,” Bondi stated on Fox News final 12 months after Trump was indicted in Georgia on prices of attempting to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election. “The investigators will probably be investigated.”
Bondi referred to as the prosecutors who charged Trump with crimes members of “the deep state” — spreading a false conspiracy concept that DOJ prosecutors and FBI brokers have been a part of a secret cabal attempting to undermine Trump. Bondi, with out citing proof, stated that since they have been not “hiding within the shadows … they’ll all be investigated.”
Bondi didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Current and former Justice Department officers have expressed blended reactions to Bondi, whom Trump picked to be lawyer common hours after Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has repeatedly denied allegations of paying prostitutes and having intercourse with a minor, withdrew from consideration.
The DOJ officers stated they view Bondi as a way more favorable decide than Gaetz as a result of she had an extended profession as a neighborhood prosecutor and Florida lawyer common. At the identical time, they see her as a Trump loyalist whom they concern is not going to hesitate to hold out his push to analyze his enemies.
“I’d anticipate her to do precisely what Trump desires her to do,” stated a just lately departed senior Justice Department official. He added that members of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s workforce are very involved and speaking to legal professionals.
On Friday, The Washington Post, citing two people near Trump’s transition, reported that Trump intends to fireplace Smith and the complete workforce that helped Smith indict Trump on federal prices of mishandling categorised paperwork and trying to overturn the 2020 election outcomes.
The Post additionally reported that Trump expects the Justice Department to analyze his long-discredited claims of widespread fraud within the 2020 election.
Past Trump attorneys common
Trump’s final lawyer common, William Barr, was dismissive of Trump’s 2020 claims of election fraud and declined to launch Justice Department investigations into them, citing an absence of proof. After publicly stating that there was no proof of widespread fraud, Barr resigned.
When Trump tried to nominate Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official who supported his false 2020 fraud claims, as performing lawyer common, a half dozen senior DOJ leaders threatened to resign. Three days later, Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to dam the certification of his defeat.
Bondi, in the meantime, supported Trump’s claims of fraud. She traveled to Philadelphia and held information conferences the place she promoted false claims of widespread poll fraud and insisted the election had been stolen from Trump.
“We know that ballots have been dumped,” Bondi stated. “We’ve heard that individuals have been receiving ballots that have been lifeless. The factor that’s occurring all around the nation.”
Bondi additionally served as a protection lawyer for Trump throughout his first impeachment, claiming the president was being unfairly investigated. During the
Bondi is at the moment a companion on the lobbying agency Ballard Partners, the place she chairs the corporate’s company regulatory compliance apply, in accordance with the agency’s web site.
Some Florida attorneys have defended Bondi and stated she adopted norms as state lawyer common. Dave Aronberg, the state lawyer for Palm Beach County, Florida, informed The Washington Post that Bondi will probably be a lot better for the DOJ than Gaetz.
“She is hands-on and he or she can also be loyal to her co-workers, that means she’s not going to attempt to push anybody out as a result of they’re a Democrat or a profession prosecutor who’s apolitical,” Aronberg informed the Post. “She believes within the rule of legislation.”
The query now could be whether or not Bondi, if confirmed, will preserve her public promise that “the prosecutors will probably be prosecuted.” And, if she declines to prosecute prosecutors for political causes, will probably be compelled out by Trump like her predecessors.
A former DOJ official who labored through the first Trump administration stated that he didn’t know Bondi effectively however that he did know Trump.
“I feel whoever he picks is sure to be loyal to him firstly,” he stated. “That’s the important thing check for him. I don’t anticipate him to choose somebody who will probably be honorable and dependable to the Constitution above him.”